The goal of the "Our Waters, Our Future" project is to contribute to the reduction of plastic pollution in Romania's 14 major river basins. It aims to create a significant impact through community interventions and raise public awareness about the harmful effects of plastic on the environment.
The project aims to inspire and equip students and teachers with the knowledge, resources and motivation necessary to become active agents of change in their communities. Moreover, the focus is on revealing the scale of microplastic pollution and its effects on biodiversity, analyzed through the lens of a top predator, the otter.
Key objectives include identifying and mapping areas with massive accumulations of waste in Romanian waters, followed by collaborating with the competent authorities to clean them up, thus contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future.
As part of the Ambassador Schools - With Clean Waters program, we will work with 14 schools to reduce plastic pollution in nature. The campaigns include innovative community interventions based on the design thinking method, where students and teachers:
• adopt good practices, such as using reusable bottles, recycling and reducing consumption.
• carry out sanitation activities, created and documented in videos, in five steps:
- empathize: Discover how the watershed is affected by plastic pollution.
- imagine: Develop community action plans to reduce plastic..
- act: Implement solutions, including through clean-up actions.
- reflect: Analyze the results and determine further steps.
- communicate: Present the solutions to the community, organize awareness events and create an exhibition corner in the school.
• Organize educational workshops created by students for their peers and shared on social media. The achievement of the title of Ambassador School will be celebrated with special mascots (otters) and plaques.
We will conduct the first ecotoxicological research of its kind in the region, investigating microplastic contamination in otters – top predators that provide valuable information about aquatic ecosystems.
The analysis will be carried out using non-invasive methods and European standards, by collecting otter faecal samples from the 14 major river basins. This data will contribute to supporting the EU’s zero pollution objectives and will inform new strategies for protecting the environment and health.
Our teams will explore Romanian waters on foot, by kayak or by drone to identify accumulations of waste.
Affected areas will be reported to local authorities to ensure their effective cleanup, thus providing a cleaner environment for all.
The program is a call for involvement in combating and preventing plastic pollution of the Danube and its tributaries, addressed to community members and public authorities in the targeted localities.
This strategy aims to abandon the use of plastic whenever possible and sustainable, to create products that can be recycled, thus closing their circuit, to collect, sort and recycle, but also to raise awareness of the impact that plastic waste has on nature.
Thus, by thinking globally and acting locally, Lidl Romania constantly responds to the challenges brought about by the plastic problem.
All measures implemented by Lidl Romania in terms of protecting the environment and combating plastic pollution are available in the sustainability reports published by the company on www.corporate.lidl.ro.
